Maybe scam is too strong, but how much do they cost vs what benefit do they provide? The ones I have seen are expensive and offer virtually no benefit to someone who can otherwise find employment. They don't offer a product that the market needs.
Now if you can't find a job as a tech...maybe they can offer some utility in terms of networking? IDK, I just don't see it.
Externship is EXTREMELY valuable in this economy and networking, absolutely. I got beyond lucky when I got my tech job because he didn't want any experience. But as the economy got worse and worse and his margins got slimmer and slimmer, he got a lot pickier in whom he hired. It went from "on the job training" to "min 6 mos. exp" to "min 2 yrs exp" - To save on money and because, well, who DOESN'T want a more experienced person? It's a buyer's market for employer's right now. 1000 applications for 1 job in lots of places, LOL.
So, it is what you make of it. Naturally, just like pharmacy schools, some programs are more aggressive at helping their students than others and some programs have better connections than others. It is incumbent, then, upon the student to put forth effort as well and to do research on the programs.
Every single tech at the hospital group I worked/volunteered for had pharmacy technician program experience. It's analogous to rad tech and respiratory therapy schooling experience. The programs themselves basically put you into a mock pharmacy for months, where you do the actual job of a technician in a mock setting (not unlike a lot of pharmacy school). That means a graduate can go into a job with real first-hand knowledge of how to be a tech.
What does someone with a CPhT with no exp. bring? Nothing but headaches. C'mon. I am a fast, fast learner but it still took me a LONG time to catch onto the nuances of being a technician. "What's a prior auth mean again?" , "How many insurance plans ARE there?" etc.
It's easy to sit in our little pharmacy ivory tower and call the programs complete wastes but it is misrepresenting the truth. They may very well be a waste for a student who is in a degree program looking to get into pharmacy school in the near future, absolutely! But for someone who wants to be a career technician (there are
lots of them) then it's a fine investment.
Not all of them cost $15,000 and such. There are a few in the central valley here in super expensive CA that won't run more than $6,000 and for career training that is acceptable. They aren't for everyone, of course, but to out-and-out label them wasteful and fraudulent is to do a great disservice to the legit. programs out there. Some could argue that there are pharm. schools out there that aren't contributing to the profession and aren't worth the money too, but that's often not the case.
For OP, it's a total waste, 100% absolutely.
